The Monster Squad (1987)

It is common to compare Fred Dekker’s The Monster Squad to The Goonies; and with good reason, both of them feature a group of misfit preteens battling evil to save their town. The parallels between the two are certainly there: Phoebe befriending the Frankenstein Monster is reminiscent of Chunk befriending  the deformed Sloth; Mary Ellen Trainor plays the protagonist’s mother in both movies; and the chubby Horace is a dead ringer for Chunk (they sport similar tacky Hawaiian shirts).  However, the stakes are a lot higher in The Monster Squad;   Goonies are merely trying to save their homes, while the fate of the entire world rests in the hands of the Monster Squad. The Goonies is a self contained adventure, while The Monster Squad is much more epic in scope (despite being made on a smaller budget).   If The Goonies is the superior movie out of the two, that’s because its protagonist’s goals are more relatable – we all, inevitably, have to face the reality of moving and being separated from our friends.  The plot to The Monster Squad is bit convoluted. In fact, rather than sort it out myself, I’ll just copy and paste the Wikipedia synopsis:

The Monster Squad is a club of pre-teenagers who idolize classic monster-movies and their non-human stars. They hold meetings at a tree-clubhouse in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Club leader Sean (Andre Gower), whose younger sister, Phoebe (Ashley Bank), desperately wants to join the club, is given the diary of legendary monster hunter Dr. Abraham Van Helsing (Jack Gwillim), but his excitement abates when he finds it is written in German. Sean, his best friend Patrick (Robby Kiger), and the rest of the Monster Squad visit an elderly man, known as the "Scary German Guy" (Leonardo Cimino), actually a kind gentleman and a former concentration camp prisoner, to translate the diary.
The diary describes, in great detail, an amulet that is composed of concentrated good. One day out of every century, as the forces of good and evil reach a balance, the otherwise indestructible amulet becomes vulnerable to destruction. With the next day of balance happening within a few days, at the stroke of midnight, the kids realize they must gain possession of the amulet and use it — with an incantation from Van Helsing's diary — to open a hole in the universe and cast the monsters into Limbo. As shown in the film's prelude, Van Helsing had unsuccessfully attempted this one hundred years ago in order to defeat his old adversary Count Dracula (Duncan Regehr); his apprentices then emigrated to the United States to hide the amulet, where it was out of Dracula's immediate reach. 

Essentially, the kids must stop Dracula from destroying the amulet, or else darkness will reign supreme. It also turns that only a female virgin can read the incantation that opens the portal.
Though, I never really understood why Dracula needed help from the other Monsters to fulfill his plan. I guess The Wolf Man is a fairly capable henchmen (at least he is given a few fun scenes), but The Mummy and The Gill Man are fairly useless in the overall scheme, while his attempt to control the Frankenstein Monster magnificently backfires. OOPS!    

While the similarities with The Goonies (and Stephen King’s It) are striking, The Monster Squad is actually more indebted to Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein, and all the other Universal monster brawls of the 40s. It even sports a similar plot to Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein – Count Dracula wants to take over the world with help from the Frankenstein monster, but his plans are thwarted by unlikely heroes; in Abbott & Costello, it is two bumbling baggage clerks, while in The Monster Squad, it is group of middle school boys.   It is also important to note that both movies take their main villain seriously; there is no scene of Dracula slipping on a banana peel, or getting his pants pulled down.  Though, both of them feature a bit of physical comedy with the Wolf Man; in Abbott & Costello, Wilbur punches the Wolf Man in the face, believing it’s his friend playing a prank on him, and in The Monster Squad, Horace kicks the Wolf Man in the “nards” and then runs away.  The Mummy is also played off as being something of a joke, which probably was a good move on Fred Dekker’s part.  The Mummy, at least the version that appeared in 1940s Universal Series, was always something of a goofy monster. In the old series, he would limp across the countryside and then clutch at people with his one good hand. If his would be victims just walked away at a normal pace they could easily outdistance themselves from him. It’s not surprising that the Mummy is more of a comedic foil for our heroes rather than a menacing monster.  Bela Lugosi’s portrayal of the famous count is iconic, but Duncan Regehr is equally good and far more menacing.  In Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein, the Frankenstein Monster was merely a walking prop that terrorized the boys, and played rather woodenly by Glenn Strange.  In The Monster Squad, Tom Noonan gives a nice sympathetic turn as the Monster (recalling Boris Karloff’s performance in the first two Frankenstein movies) and even brings an air of tragedy to the character.  There’s a childlike innocence to the Monster and so it isn’t too surprising that he forms a bond with the five year-old Phoebe.  

The kids themselves are likable enough even if their performances are a bit uneven. Ryan Lambert comes off best as the “cool” kid, Rudy.  Andre Gower brings enough gravity to the role of Sean, the leader of the Monster Squad, that it’s easy to root for him. He, arguably, has the hardest task of doling out exposition to the audience and does an admirable job.  Brent Chalem is pretty funny as the overweight Horace (He genuinely looks scared in the scenes with the monsters).  Robby Kiger is kind of the odd man out, not because he’s bad, but his character of Patrick is given very little to do. He is, essentially, Sean’s right hand man, but the only significant thing he does in the entire movie is print out “MONSTER SQUAD” business cards.  The youngest of the boys is Eugene (Michael Faustino), who naturally approaches this monster business in more naïve fashion – he writes a letter, in crayon, to the army asking for help. He also can’t go anywhere without his pet puppy.   And then there’s Ashley Banks as Sean’s little sister, Phoebe, whom is merely required to look and behave in a “cute” fashion. It’s a credit to Fred Dekker’s direction that she pulls this off effortless without every getting on the audience’s nerves.  What really sells movie is that the children behave like actual children; not the Hollywood facsimile that dominates many movies.  The most important thing is that the kids have fairly good chemistry and are completely believable as friends. 

The Monster Squad is very much a product of its time. It is a reminder of what filmmakers were allowed to get away with in the 1980s (versus the political correctness that dominates the industry today).  How many modern movies would make the “cool” kid a Peeping Tom?  While the Monster Squad is devising a plan to stop Dracula, Rudy is spying on, and taking pictures of, Patrick’s older sister.  Their tree house gives him a great vantage point for his peeping; he can see her standing in her bedroom window.  There’s also a running gag over whether or not Patrick’s sister is a virgin. YIKES!!! 

Even though The Monster Squad is targeted towards children, it is a fairy violent movie: Horace blows away the Gill Man with a shotgun; Rudy stakes Dracula’s Brides through the heart; the Wolf Man gets blown up by dynamite (and puts himself back together again, because only silver bullets can kill a werewolf); Detective Sapir gets blown up in a squad car; and Dracula gets impaled on a wrought iron fence.  This isn’t a criticism because the violence actually ups the stakes (no pun intended) in this movie.  In fact, if anything The Monster Squad is reminder as to how toothless many modern day blockbusters have become – Super Hero movies are fun but there’s never a genuine sense of danger. In The Monster Squad, there’s a scene where a pissed off Dracula grabs a stick of dynamite, throws it into the boy’s tree house, and watches gleefully as their hang out Is blown to bits.  He is not content with just scaring the kids, he genuinely wants to kill them.  Duncan Regehr’s Dracula is absolutely ruthless and will gladly destroy anyone that gets in his ways; even if that someone is a five year-old girl.  

Fred Dekker’s direction is pretty uneven (he simply cannot resist throwing in a cheesy montage), but it’s also fairly imaginative.  In a single shot he tells us everything we need to know about Scary German Guy’s background story.  The kids befriend an old man, whom they dubbed as Scary German Guy because of his creepy house and mysterious background, and they have a discussion about monsters. As the kids are leaving his house, they comment that he sure knows a lot about monster and he tells them they come in all different shapes. The camera then zooms into number tattooed onto Scary German Guy’s forearm – informing the audience that he is a survivor of the Holocaust.  This is a nice, subtle way of giving us Scary German Guy’s back story; the movie doesn’t fade into a long winded flashback, it allows for the image to speak for itself.  If you notice this detail, then it allows you to fill in the blanks about Scary German Guy. If you miss the tattoo, it doesn’t impact that narrative in the least bit.  It’s brief moment that doesn’t halt the pacing of the movie.  There is also a nice tracking shot that shows us firsthand how powerful Dracula; he is slowly walking towards Phoebe (who is in possession of the amulet) and effortlessly brushes aside the police officers that are trying to stop him. They are insignificant pests to him and he barely acknowledges their existence.

The movie’s brief running time (82 minutes) is also a huge asset.  The Monster Squad moves at a rapid pace and this because isn’t bogged down in unnecessary subplots.  We get an exciting opening sequence, followed by the introduction of our main characters, a few scenes of exposition, and then it’s off to the races.  I’d rather have a movie be too short than be too long.  If you leave a movie wanting more, then the filmmakers have done their job.   

The Monster Squad was a huge bomb when it was released on August 14, 1987 (it grossed 3.8 million against a 12 million budget).  It is really hard to explain why a movie (especially a fairly good movie) bombs, but I think there were two factors that worked significantly against The Monster Squad.

1. Who is this movie’s target audience? The Monster Squad is too violent (and a bit too raunchy) for
truly small kids. The movie was slapped with a PG-13 rating and I’m sure that might have turned off a few parents.   On the other hand, preteens probably looked at the title and scoffed, “This is for little children.” 

2. The horror market (especially the horror-comedy market) had started to wear thin by 1987. In the 1980s, the market had become so oversaturated with horror movies that by 1987 people were starting to move. There were exceptions to the rule (A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: The Dream Warriors proved to be a hit for New Line Cinemas) but the box office returns were starting to diminish. In 1984 we were treated to such classic horror comedies like Ghostbusters and Gremlins, by 1987 the studios were pumping out dreck like Teen Wolf, Too and House II: The Second Story.  Unfortunately, The Monster Squad got lumped with this garbage.  However, I tend to believe that if a movie is genuinely good it will inevitably find an audience.  This, happily, turned out to be the case for The Monster Squad.

Credits

Cast: Andre Gower (Sean), Robby Kiger (Patrick), Duncan Regehr (Count Dracula), Tom Noonan (Frankenstein’s Monster), Ryan Lambert (Rudy), Brent Chalem (Horace), Stephen Macht (Del), Ashley Bank (Phoebe), Michael Faustino (Eugene), Leonardo Cimino (Scary German Guy), Mary Ellen Trainor (Emily), Jonathan Gries (Desperate Man), Lisa Fuller (Patrick’s sister), Stan Shaw (Detective Sapir), Jack Gwillim (Van Helsing), Jason Hervey (E.J.), Adam Carl (Derek), Sonia Curtis (Peasant Girl), Carl Thibault (Wolfman), Tom Woodruff, Jr. (Gillman), Michael Reid MacKay (Mummy),  David Proval (Pilot), Daryl Anderson (Co-pilot), Robert Lesser (Eugene’s Dad).

Director: Fred Dekker
Screenplay: Shane Black, Fred Dekker.
Running Time: 82 min.